Ukraine’s rapid advance in the Kharkiv region has even raised questions on Russian state-controlled television channels about who is to blame for the difficulties faced by the country’s armed forces.
What happened cannot be simply swept under the carpet.
NTV television channel Mesto vstretši (Meeting place) (you will switch to another service) – in the talk show, a former liberal member of parliament Boris Nadezhdin blamed those parties who convinced the president Vladimir Putin about making the special operation efficient and short.
– They said that the civilian population will not be attacked, we will only go in, the National Guard and the people of Kadyrov [Tšetšenian presidentin Ramzan Kadyrovin lähettämät joukot] put everything in order, Nadeždin described.
– These people led us into a trap.
Already in the past, ultra-nationalist circles in Russia have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the slow progress of the war.
Nadezhdin also claimed that it is completely impossible to win Ukraine with the resources that Russia is trying to wage there now.
He said that Russia is trying to fight in Ukraine like in a colonial war: contract soldiers and mercenaries are fighting on the front, and Russia is not making a general campaign. However, the opposition is a powerful army with the support of European countries.
Nadeždin considered that Russia must either strive for negotiations or impose a general motion. Of course, the statements aroused fierce objections in the program.
– No negotiations To Zelensky you can’t work with the Nazi regime, Zelenskyi’s Nazi regime must be destroyed, leader of the Just Russia party Sergei Mironov announced to the unit.
Mironov added that there is no need for mobilization, the army has enough strength.
Journalist who follows the Russian media Julia Davis wrote on his Twitter account that Russian TV commentators realize that Russia is in trouble and the search for the culprits has begun.
Previously, it has been estimated that the Russian leadership does not want to announce a general motion for political reasons. In effect, it would be an admission that the military special operation had failed. On the other hand, it might raise widespread dissatisfaction.
So far, the war has not directly touched the vast majority of the Russian population. The army’s crew has been collected from poor remote areas of the country.
Researcher: The military structures have been dismantled
Russian researcher familiar with the military and defense industry Pavel Luzin suspects that Russia is simply not capable of implementing a large-scale campaign.
– There are no organizational structures for mobilization, says Luzin.
Luzin is a visiting researcher at Tufts University’s Faculty of International Relations in the United States. interviewed him on Thursday evening via remote connection.
Luzin says that the Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov the reform program implemented in the period 2009–2012 dismantled the structures of the army based on mass mobilization.
In the past, Russia had divisions with tanks and artillery in shelters and officers ready to receive thousands of soldiers deployed.
– This mechanism no longer exists. It is a big question how the mobilization would succeed under these conditions.
Luzin considers that there are two types of movement proposals: democratic republican mobilization or violent mobilization. In the republican campaign, the citizens themselves are ready to go and fight, as in Ukraine.
Such a business launch is not possible in today’s Russia, says Luzin.
– Society does not trust the Kremlin and the war in Ukraine is generally viewed negatively. Whatever the polls show, in reality Russian citizens do nothing, do not go to war, do not give money for war and do not want war in general.
On the other hand, violent forcing to the front will not succeed. Society has changed since the days of the Bolsheviks.
– There are no longer such villages where the commissar could arrive with a pistol to collect men for the war, Luzin says.
In the cities, a forced start-up of businesses could cause strong social and political upheavals.
– In addition, as a political act, mobilization would require the delegation of powers to the military leadership, and the Kremlin does not trust its soldiers, Luzin points out.
The reforms were left half way
Anatoly Serdyukov, who served as the Minister of Defense in 2007–12, embarked on a reform program after the 2008 war in Georgia. Although the Russian army won in Georgia, the war revealed the shortcomings of the armed forces. The war in Ukraine shows that the reforms were half-way.
Luzin considers that the reforms did not succeed in an authoritarian state.
The political leadership was on the one hand captured by the defense industry, and on the other hand it refused to reform military training. According to Luzin, there is a concern about a military coup in the background.
– The Kremlin is afraid of intelligent officers, Luzin says.
On the other hand, the reform was made more difficult by the general decline in the level of education in Russia.
Luzin estimates that Russia will not succeed in making up for the loss of personnel and material experienced by its forces in Ukraine. There is no way for the Russian armed forces to return to the level they were on February 23, before the invasion of Ukraine.
More on the topic:
‘s updated monitoring of Russia’s war against Ukraine
Maps reveal how quickly Russian troops are retreating in eastern Ukraine on September 12, 2022
Supporters of the attack were angry with the war leadership in Russia 11 September 2022
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Daily world politics: MPA: Ukraine’s counter-offensive war autumn 10.9.2022